A well known game of chance offered to players in most gaming casinos is video draw poker. After making a wager, the player is dealt five cards face up. The player selects which cards, if any, the player wishes to hold, the unheld cards are discarded and replacement cards are dealt for the discarded cards. The final five card hand is analyzed to determine its poker hand ranking and the player is paid for winning poker hand rankings based on the amount of the player's wager. A pay table is displayed to the player showing the amounts that the player can win based on the poker hand ranking achieved by the player and the amount wagered by the player.
Bonus game features have also been added to video poker. In one known bonus game, video poker is combined with a game of bingo. A bingo card is shown in a video screen display adjacent to the video screen on which the regular game of video poker is played. Each of the spots on the bingo card is designated as a particular poker hand ranking, such as Four Aces, a Pair of Jacks, a Spade Flush, etc. and the center spot is a Free Space as is traditional in bingo. Whenever the player achieves one of the designated poker hand rankings as a final hand during the play of the regular video poker game, the corresponding spot on the bingo card is marked—such as by highlighting the spot. When the player achieves a winning play on the bingo card (such as completing a row, column, diagonal or the four corners), the player wins a bonus award. The spots that comprise the winning arrangement are unmarked—such as by unhighlighting the spots—and the bonus feature continues with the other highlighted spots carrying over.
There is a need in the gaming industry to provide new and exciting games for the players to maintain interest in casino gaming. It is an object of the present invention to provide players with a bonus feature that is played in conjunction with a regular video poker game so that the player has the chance to win a bonus payout award during the course of play of video poker.
It is a feature of the present invention to initially designate one or more playing cards, either as simply a group of cards or as recognizable poker hands, and the designated cards are displayed to the player. As the playing cards are dealt to the player during the play of regular video poker, each dealt card that corresponds to one of the designated cards results in a match of the designated card and the match is shown by highlighting the designated card that has been matched. When the player has matched all of the designated cards, the player receives a bonus award.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the player will receive additional payouts based on the length of time that the player plays the gaming machine. This will encourage the player to play the gaming machine for a longer time and add an additional entertainment feature to the gaming machine. This also adds a form of entertainment to the game of video poker since the player will have a rooting interest watching the designated cards being matched over the course of the deal of the playing cards. The bonus feature does not affect the play of the regular video poker game.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.